Hi, we have noticed our guinea pig Jasmine's paws are not looking normal.

First of all, we saw that there was a something underneath one of her toenails. It is the same material and her toenail, it is like a little block stuck under there. at first we thought it was just dirt stuck but when we tried to pull it off it would't come off.

Second, about a week ago we noticed one of her toenails is twisted. It is sideways and on that toe there is a red bump and it looks irritated.

Third, we noticed cuts on one of her paws this afternoon. One of the cuts looked like she didn't just get it, and the other one was bleeding a little so we couldn't really tell (it was not a lot of blood, just a few drips)

Do you have any suggestions for what we should do or any ideas of what it could be? Should we take her to the vet?

Also, we have noticed Jasmine is coughing and sneezing a lot. She is not showing any other signs of having a URI or other sickness, she is eating and drinking well, and she is playful and she does not have boogers. Any ideas on what it could be? We think it could be an allergy.

I am guessing what you are seeing may be a "spur" (growth of foot pad) though it is in an unusual location. It may be a fungal infection (dermatophytes) that could be treated with something like Lotrimin, if I remember correctly.www.guinealynx.info/feet.html#spurs

Thanks! I did look through this earlier, and none of the pictures looked like Jasmine's feet. I did look at the spurs section again, it did not look like what she has, but like Lynx said if they are spurs they would be in a weird place. I didn't see anything about sore feet, though.

Thanks so much! Also, I am a new guinea pig owner, so I do not have much experience. I have a few more questions:

- Won't the guinea pigs lick the cream off when they are grooming themselves? Also, they step in their hay and food, couldn't it be dangerous if they ingested cream?
- Can you use some sort of anti-fungal cream not specifically made for guinea pigs?

We have also started soaking Jasmine's feet in salt water 1-2 times a day, and we heard coconut oil can help with sore feet so are using that too. We are going to take her to the vet soon if her feet don't get better soon because I have a lot of questions and would rather be safe than sorry(her coughing gotten better in the past few days, so we are going to wait a few days with taking her to the vet because of the cough because she seems to be improving with the coughing)

When you apply any cream of any sort to a guinea pig, you should apply a very thin layer and rub it in well with a q-tip. If you do it that way, they're not going to ingest much medicated cream at all.

Hi, I think Jasmine's toenail fell off. I noticed another cut on her foot and tried to get a picture of it (she is really squirmy, it is easier to set her down on a table and take a picture of her), and after looking at the picture I noticed her toenail looked like it fell off (the whole think not just the weird block). She does not seem to be in pain.

Hi everyone! Jasmine has almost stopped coughing, I think it was because of the laundry detergent we used to use. Her cuts have healed, and we started her on some micatin anti-fungal cream. She We also noticed that our other gp, Pigsy, has some fungus-looking stuff on her feet, so we are also giving her some cream. Hopefully the fungus will go away soon. Thanks so much for your help!